It's no easy task, combing through the ashes of a rivalry loss, but Jim_S is up to the task on today's podcast.
He talks about a host of aspects from the Wolverines' 14-10 setback, including the fact that the season didn't end with that defeat.
Here's the podcast…
Here are some podcast highlights, including Jim_S on…
• On reasons for the loss: "Let's put it in perspective — it's just one game. Of course, it's always bitter to lose to your arch rival the way we did.
"Five turnovers. I haven't seen that many turnovers in a Michigan State game since Demetrius Brown threw seven interceptions way back in 1987. We almost won that game as well.
"If we could have played mistake-free football on the offensive side of the football, we probably would have won this game. Life goes on."
• Michigan failing to grab a lead early, before the weather turned: "When it started to rain, we were behind 14-3 at that point. We had dug ourselves a hole. Everyone knew the rain was coming around 10, 10:15. I was very worried that if we hadn't tied the game at that point, it would be tough to come from behind.
"It would be a slippery ball, there would be turnovers, and it would be tough to move the ball downfield through the air. That's exactly how it played out."
• Michigan's offense/defense split: "There are two side to every coin. On defense, we are better than expected. We're playing at a level I don't think many people were really expecting to see this early in the season, from game one through this game. It's been a very, very consistently good defense, with a few minor breakdowns here and there…
"Considering we've only got one returning full-time starter, that's really a credit to [defensive coordinator] Don Brown and his staff. Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin, we have not seen the offense progress anywhere close to the level we would have hoped for.
"The first game against Florida, there were some early alarm signals that there were issues. It's just continued from there. Between the Florida and the Michigan State game, we were playing mediocre competition, so we were able to pull out those games, but it was often late in the third, early in the fourth quarter.
"When you go up against a team like Michigan State, you're going up against a different level of competition. I think a lot of Michigan fans underestimated that fact. They thought Michigan State is coming off a 3-9 team, their worst team in a decade. They were coming off a tumultuous offseason, where there were multiple top players suspended…
"A lot of Michigan fans characterized their program as a dumpster fire and immediately chalked up the Michigan State game, being at home, as an automatic, guaranteed victory for Michigan. My words of advice — never, ever, ever do that."
• What Michigan needs going forward: "All we would have have had to have been was an average offense to have won this game. But at this point, you could probably argue that our offense is as weak as our defense is good…
"This year's team, the issue isn't just the offensive line, it's the wide receivers, it's the running backs, it's the play calling. The only ones, I would have, who have had a decent degree of productivity are the tight ends. And there, we've been banged up a bit…
"How this offense is performing is, quite frankly, disconcerting. I have not seen it not work, across the board, on offense, as badly has it hasn't been working this year."
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